Mike Hounshell
Mike Hounshell started playing bass guitar professionally at 15. After five days of practicing with the band, the other members of his first band invited some guys from one of the other local bands in the area to evaluate his playing. The drummer/vocalist from the other band happened to be none other than a young undiscovered Steve Whiteman, who went on to became the lead singer of the legendary band "Kix". After that Hounshell began constantly playing clubs and concerts in cover bands along the east coast. During his senior year in high school He was selected for the Maryland 1978 All-State Chorus. He graduated from high school with the "Outstanding Music Student Award" and an accompanying music scholarship($25). Houshell passed the vocal audition and attended Frostburg State University where he majored in music. There he played bass in the jazz ensemble, trombone in the marching band, and performed in many vocal ensembles. He engineered and was an artist on both student talent association albums, "Beleive It", and "Plateu". In 1981 He released a solo album, "Sometime, Somewhere". The single he put out was featured in the regular rotation on some FM radio stations. The album received generous airplay. Since the digital age, it has been made available for download in a bit torrent on many web sites by fans of the record. The vinyl album is now a rare collectible. In 1984 Hounshell's band "Ten Below" made it to the final's of "DC101's Battle of the Bands" playing at the Sylvan Theater, in front of the Washington Monument in front of a estimated crowd of 20 thousand people. In 1984 Hounshell had been interviewed on a TV show called "The Green Room" (Channel 56 WNVC) and was asked during the interview to record a theme for the show. Mike and his band opened for Henry Lee Summer- CBS Records, and played regularly at the Bayou in Washington, DC. Hounshell also received three Mid-Atlantic Songwriting Contest awards. In 1991 Mike joined a progressive rock band "Cathedral" (a registered U.S. Trademark 1991). This band is not to be confused with the Death Metal band from the U.K. by the same name. Cathedral entered a song in Musician Magazine's 4th "Best Unsigned Band Contest" and made it to the finals and listed in the magazine for being in the top 100 best unsigned bands. The band opened for "Dream Theater" at the Bayou and was booked by "Cellar Door Productions" around the DC area. Later that year they signed a recording contract with Kinesis, a progressive rock label. Their first CD, "Kingdom of Ends" was the first original CD the Kinesis label released. It was well received in the progressive rock world. In Jerry Lucky's book "The Progressive Rock Files", he called Cathedral "Pioneers of neo-progressive rock". After Cathedral released their second CD, "There in the Shadows" on Kinesis in 1993, the band split up. The nationally syndicated "Don and Mike" WJFK 106.7, Fairfax, VAb used the intro or one of the bands songs from "There in The Shadows" in the show's daily intro. In 1997 Hounshell recorded bass during a session at Sountrax with Roger Fisher, legendary guitarist of the band "Heart". Mike engineered and produced the doom epic "Review Your Choices" CD with Joe Hasslevander and Bobby Leibling of Pentagram in 1999.